New weight loss center in Minnetonka takes new approach to women’s health.

Women over age 35 often struggle to lose weight despite their best efforts with dieting and exercise. For Dawn Cutillo, the founder of BeBalanced and a national hormone balancing specialist, the matter hit close to home. “I saw all these women exercising and dieting, but still weren’t able to lose weight. I had hormonal problems myself in my 30s,” Cutillo says.

Her business, BeBalanced Hormone Weight Loss Centers, was born of the desire to address women’s weight-loss issues using natural remedies. “Connections between hormones and weight were something people weren’t exploring,” Cutillo says. So in 2006 Cutillo and her brother David created BeBalanced; they started the franchise in 2013. Both Dawn and David had experience in the corporate world; Dawn has a background in nutrition and exercise physiology, and David has a marketing and sales background.

Lane Peterson, the owner of the recently opened BeBalanced location in Minnetonka, joined the team earlier this year. She also had a career as an advertising executive before deciding to make a change in her professional life. “Now, for the first time, I am a making a difference in people’s lives,” Peterson says.

“Our process is so quick, we get 15 pounds of weight loss in a month,” Dawn Cutillo says. Clients go through a two-month process, starting with one month of dieting, relaxation and stress-management therapy and natural hormonal supplements, followed by a maintenance month with more natural supplements and food sensitivity testing.

BeBalanced targets women from ages 35 to 65, hoping to educate and provide the tools for them to get back into hormonal balance, decrease hot flashes, improve sleep and lose weight. Peterson and her team hope to provide long-term, not just immediate, solutions. “You can lose weight after 35,” says Cutillo.